Paid media is overrated... Kind of

I see a lot of tweets about the results of paid media.

People are boasting 15x returns on a Facebook ad or how Instagram ads brought in a 10x return.

It creates this image that if you just put money into Facebook ads, you will print money.

That simply isn't true.

We don't know the customer acquisition cost, so even if the revenue looks exceptional, their margins could be pennies or at a loss that is not worth coveting.

Customers usually don't just convert from one ad. Paid media buyers will take a lot of credit since they can track attribution (kind of); a consumer spends a lot of time researching before converting to purchase.

Here is the truth.

You will not have great converting ads if you don't have really great organic social media content and content on your website.

Ads are not the only touchpoint

Ads are just one touchpoint that a consumer has in their buyer journey. Usually, the ad brings the consumer from one platform to the company's website.

If your website looks bad or doesn't have updated content, the consumer will bounce off.

If your website doesn't have educational content, the consumer might not find what they want, not because you don't have it, but because they couldn't find it.

So yes, the ad brought the consumer to your site, but the conversion is not guaranteed until they buy something.

To help convert your ad, you need to have outstanding content on your site to help the consumer.

Intention to buy comes before the ads

Often, a consumer will start to get targeted for ads when they look at the company's profile or look at competitors.

This is important because rarely are the ads that are being sent to consumers random. The customer shows intention, and then a platform will try to put ads that sell to the consumer's intention.

I am not saying paid media doesn't help convert customers, but let's not downplay the power of creating intention.

Creating the intention comes from organic content on social media.

You consistently share your company, products, behind-the-scenes, and mission, which will get people excited to share about your company. Word of mouth brings friends to your page. They get to know your company, and maybe they even go onto your website.

So by the time an ad comes to them, they probably have decided on your company.

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but naturally, we do.

The consumer will have an opinion about you based on your organic content before they see an ad.

If they don't like you based on your content, they will probably steer clear of your ads no matter how engaging they are.

Your organic content and website content creates the first impression of your brand and is the difference to if consumers will pay attention to your ads or not.

High-Quality wins

Consumers are smart.

There are many steps in the buyer's journey that are untraceable.

Now with more data privacy, the steps are even harder to track.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't run ads; you just need to understand that organic content plays a significant role in the steps that are not traceable, where a buyer tends to formulate their opinion.

Long story short, build out photos and videos that get people excited about your product on all of your channels.